State police are investigating whether a driver, who later died, had a sudden medical problem before back-to-back crashes Thursday morning on Philadelphia Pike in the Holly Oak-Fox Point area.

The crashes "happened so close together, the reports came in simultaneously" at 11:28 a.m., Cpl. John Day said.

Paul Hare, 56, of Claymont, first hit another vehicle on Philadelphia Pike at Silverside Road, Day said.

He continued driving south on Philadelphia Pike at a high rate of speed and began a chain-reaction collision involving four vehicles and injuring another driver at the intersection with Cauffiel and Bellevue parkways, Day said.

A multi-vehicle crash Thursday morning on Philadelphia Pike closed the roadway. Two people were trapped in the wreckages, one person was flown to an area hospital. 3/6/14
DAMIAN GILETTO/The News Journal

In the first crash, no one was hurt and the second driver remained at the scene to await police, he said.

In the second crash, Hare's car – a 1992 Grand Am – ran into the back of a minivan that had slowed approaching the intersection, Day said.

The minivan then slammed into the vehicle in front of it and kept traveling southeast into the northbound lanes, where an SUV ran into its passenger side, he said.

Hare was taken to Christiana Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Day said. The van driver, Thibaud Harpey, 43, of Wilmington, was treated for minor injuries at the same hospital and released.

The other two drivers were not injured.

Day said there were no reports of Hare driving erratically before the crashes and "no indication that he tried to slow or avoid striking the Dodge Caravan" in the second collision.

"With the way these two crashes occurred," he said, "it suggests that a medical problem was responsible."

Continuing investigation of the fatal crash will include examination of Hare's medical record for any conditions that might have led to a sudden-onset health crisis, he said.

Both directions of Philadelphia Pike were closed for about three hours as the crash was investigated and wreckage cleared.

Contact robin brown at (302) 324-2856 or rbrown@delawareonline.com. Find her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter @rbrowndelaware.